What a lovely day - the first day of sunshine in a while and just perfect for a mating flight for the virgin queens in two of the hives. By next week, assuming that they manage successful mating flights, I would hope to see evidence of eggs and perhaps, even some larvae.
Here is a picture of the marked queen in one of the other hives. Each queen is marked with a colour denoting the year of her birth. In this case, blue means that she is a 2010 queen.
See how her abdomen is extended. This is perfect for dropping her tail end into the bottom of the cells and depositing an egg there.
The bees around her are her attendants. Their job is to follow, feed and groom her as she is unable to look after herself.
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